The Inverse Problem for the Vocal Tract and the Moment Problem

Abstract
B. Gopinath and M. M. Sondhi have shown how the shape of a vocal tract can be determined from an acoustical measurement at the lips. The applications of this method include the synthesis of nonuniform transmission lines and the study of the behavior of the basilar membrane. We show here that the method can be very simply understood as representing an orthogonal decomposition which enters naturally into the classical moment problem.